Juma al-Dossary
Jumah Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dossari ( ) is a Bahraini, formerly held in the American prison for security detainees, Camp Delta, at the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay. After five years of the detention there, three and half of which he spent in solitary confinement, he was released, with no charges against him, to Saudi Arabia in 2007. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 261. In late July 2005, Al-Dossari spoke with his lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan about the summer's first hunger strike. The prisoners ended this strike on July 28, 2005, when guard commander Michael Bumgarner promised concessions. Speaking in Bahrain in September 2005, following the meeting with his client, Colangelo-Bryan revealed that Al-Dossari had informed him that: *the detainees were willing to die, if necessary, to resolve their grievances. *the detainees were protesting their imprisonment without having fair hearings. *the detainees were protesting interference with their religious practices, including interruption of the call to prayer by prison officers who talked loudly during the call and even mimicked it. *the detainees were served food which was often rotten and tap water which was yellow and brackish. *the number of detainees being given acute medical attention had overwhelmed the camp's infirmary, and that critically ill detainees were in cots in the interrogation area. Colangelo-Bryan believed that Al-Dossari joined in the summer's second hunger strike, which started approximately August 8, 2005. The campaign to free the detainee is being led by Bahraini MP Mohammed Khalid. Chicago Public Radio's program, This American Life, featured Al Dossary in a Peabody Award-winning broadcast about Guantanamo in 2006. Letters from Al Dossary, and his father On September 5, 2005 the Gulf Daily News summarized a letter Al Dossary had written, protesting his innocence. The letter was post-marked June 10, 2005 and described various abuses he had suffered, including: *cigarettes being extinguished on his body. *being made to walk on barbed wire. *being urinated on by GI's. On September 17, 2005, the Gulf Daily News summarized a letter received from Al Dossary's father in which he confirms that he has throat cancer, expects to die soon and pleads to see his son. Released British detainees reports British detainees Tarek Dergoul and Shafiq Rasul were released in 2004. They reported that their cells were near Al Dossary's. According to Human Rights Watch: }} The Newstandard reports: Combatant Status Review A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo accused him of the following: First annual Administrative Review Board A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Juma Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dosari's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 26 September 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript Juma Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dosari participated in his first annual Board hearing. The DoD released a 17 page summarized transcript from his hearing. Second annual Administrative Review Board A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Juma Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dosari's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 13 September 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention possession when he was taken into custody. The detainee stated that his companion had taken his passport while they were in Jalalabad. :b. Training ::The detainee attended the al Siddeek camp. The al Siddeek camp was located near Khowst, Afghanistan. The detainee received training on the Kalashnikov rifle and physical exercise. :c. Connections/Associations :#The detainee stated that a sheik from Dammam, Saudi Arabi offered to pay his rent and provided him with 7,000 to 10,000 Saudi Riyals if he would agree to journey to Bosnia to fight. The detainee traveled to Bosnia in 1995. :#An al Qaida operative stated that the sheik may have supported the Wafa Al-Igatha Al-Islamia, aka Wafa Organization, during the Chechnyan conflict. The al Qaida operative also stated that the sheik was a supporter of the Mujahedin. :#The detainee traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to meet an individual who was a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed. :#The detainee was invited to Chechnya to fight by this individual, but the detainee stated that he had no money for the trip. The individual gave him 3,000 to 4,000 Saudi Riyals in addition to travel expenses. :#The detainee stayed at an Arab safe house that was a staging area for Arabs traveleing to Chechnya to fight. :#The detainee traveled to Bahrain and went to the United States Embassy and received a five-year tourism visa. The detainee's father gave him 19,000 Saudi Riyals for his trip to the United States and he flew from Bahrain ot Istanbul, Turkey and then to the United States. The detainee was picked up at the airport and taken to an Islamic Center. :#The detainee went to another Islamic Center and was there for approximately two months before returning to Saudi Arabia to visit his sick father. After eight months in Saudi Arabia, the detainee returned to the United States and made other trips in the United States. :#The detainee said that he traveled to the eastern United States after speaking with an acquaintance and was introduced to a Muslim community and gave a lecture on the importance of keeping the tradition of prayer. :#The detainee says he gave a speech during a Friday service in 2001 at a mosque that upset the elder religious leaders. :#The detainee stated that he was shocked to learn that his acquaintance was involved with al Qaida and jihadist activity. The detainee also said that it seemed illogical that his acquaintance and Jamaat Tabligh could be so involved because violence nor the use of weapons were ever advocated. :#The detainee was identified as being a cook in Tora Bora, Afghanistan. :#According to a source, the detainee spent time in Saudi prisons. The detainee was imprisoned for being a member of Al Motoaien, also known as Al Mujahedin, and for participating in the USS Cole bombing. :#Al Motoaien is a network in Saudi Arabia involved in document forgery, weapons and poison smuggling. :#The detainee decided to return to Saudi Arabia. The detainee flew to Bahrain and was arrested by Saudi Intelligence officials under suspicion stemming from the Khobar Towers bombing and his foreign travel. The Saudi government held him for approximately three months, but his passport was revoked for one-and-a-half-years . :#The detainee stated that he spent time in prison in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The detainee was eventually released and returned to Dammam, Saudi Arabia but his passport was revoked for five years. :#The detainee's name was found on a computer media listing of Mujahedin, which was seized during raids against al Qaida associated safe houses. The list identified each individual's trust account and the contents of the detainee's trust are listed as a passport and identification card. }} The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript In September 2007, the Department of Defense published summarized transcripts from 60 Board hearings attended by captives in 2006. The Department of Defense released a twelve page summarized transcript from Al Dosari's hearing. Enemy Combatant election form His Assisting Military Officer met with him, prior to his 2006 hearing, on September 21, 2006. The notes from the Enemy Combatant election form completed during that interview say: Suicide attempts A story published in the October 20, 2005, edition of the Gulf Daily News warned of various signs of Al Dossary's deteriorating mental health. The story was based on notes from Colangelo-Bryan, which US intelligence officials had declassified on October 19, 2005. According to Colangelo-Byran: * Al Dossary had made earlier suicide attempts. * Al Dossary said he was afraid he was losing his mind. * Al Dossary reported that the lights were never turned off in his cell, and this interfered with his ability to sleep. * Al Dossary reported that he knew he needed mental health care, but he didn't trust the camp medical staff. * Al Dossary reports he has been suffering from seizures. * Al Dossary reports that camp medical staff have withheld medical treatment from him in the past. * Al Dossary reports that when he can fall asleep he awakes screaming, from nightmares. According to a report in the Washington Post on November 1, 2005, Al Dossary attempted to commit suicide on October 15, whilst taking a washroom break during a visit by his lawyer, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan. Colangelo-Bryan described finding Al Dossary hanging unconscious from a noose in the washroom, with blood pouring from a large wound in his right arm. American authorities decline to comment on specific detainee's cases, but they have acknowledged that 22 detainees have made 36 suicide attempts. Three of the attempted suicides have been successful. Following his most recent suicide attempt Al Dossary's lawyers filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on his behalf. In the restraining order they requested: * Reading material beyond a copy of the Qu'ran. * Turning off the lights in his cell, to help make it possible for him to sleep. * Biweekly telephone calls to his family and lawyers. * Being allowed increased exercise time. * Being allowed to receive mail from his family. His lawyers requested that an independent medical professional be permitted to asses Al Dossary's mental state. They described the Americans' refusal to provide news of Al Dossary's health, following his recent suicide attempt, as "gratuitous callousness". Al Dossary was reported to have had made another suicide attempt, on November 13, 2005, by ripping out his stitches. The Kansas City Star said that this was Al Dossary's ninth suicide attempt. The Star quotes Colonel Michael Bumgarner, the camp guard commander, who wrote in an affidavit that Al Dossary's despair was his own fault, because Al Dossary had not claimed 73 of his last 97 exercise privileges. Further his interrogators had occasionally rewarded him with take out pizza, hamburgers, and had let him watch the movies Gladiator and Troy. On May 11, 2006 the Gulf Daily News reported that Colangelo-Bryan said that al Dossary had tried to slit his throat in March. Alleged to have been tied to the "Lackawanna Six" An article published on November 7, 2005, quotes Peter J. Ahearn, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Buffalo office concerning interest the FBI had in ties between Al Dossary, and the Lackawanna Six. Six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna, near Buffalo, secretly traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, for jihad training, in early 2001. Ahearn told the Buffalo News that two of the Lackawanna Six said that Al Dossary had delivered a "fiery speech" at the Guidance Mosque in Lackawanna. According to Ahearn the FBI is interested in learning whether Al Dossary may have helped fund the Lackawanna men's travel expenses. The Buffalo News article quotes from Al Dossary's Combatant Status Review Tribunal. They report that Al Dossary acknowledges traveling to Buffalo, and acknowledges giving a "fiery speech", but denied ever encouraging anyone to join al Qaeda. They report Al Dossary denied having any ties to al Qaeda or terrorism. U.S. Embassy in Bahrain responds to abuse allegations On November 9, 2005, the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain issued a statement to respond to the allegations that Dossary had been abused, and that his physical and mental health was at risk. The Embassy statement asserted: :"The US government takes all allegations of abuse seriously. When a credible allegation of improper conduct surfaces, it is reviewed, and when factually warranted, investigated. :"As a result of the investigation, administrative, disciplinary, or judicial action is taken as appropriate. :"We have no evidence that substantiates that Mr Al Dossary was the subject of any sexual humiliation." The statement denied that Al Dossary was kept in solitary confinement, and assured readers that Al Dossary had access to excellent medical care, and insisted that the treatment of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay were "humane". Mark Sullivan, one of Al Dossary's lawyers, challenged the points in the Embassy's statement. The ''Gulf Daily News quoted Sullivan as saying he had no knowledge of any judicial action by US authorities following allegations of abuse. Sullivan connected the incident described in Eric Saar's book, Inside the Wire, where interrogator Sergeant Jeanette Arocho-Burkart smeared a red liquid she claimed was her menses on to a detainee's face with Al Dossary. Sullivan claimed that Dossary was the detainee who was told he was being smeared with menses. However, in press reports that detainee was described as being a Saudi. Appeal for an independent medical examination On June 12, 2006 Al Dossary wrote a letter to his lawyer Colangelo-Bryan, requesting an independent medical examination.'Deathbed' plea by Bay detainee, Gulf Daily News, July 25, 2006 Al Dossary told Colangelo-Bryan that he acquired a dangerous blood disease as a result of a blood transfusion that followed his March 11, 2006 suicide attempt. :"After they (the US military) gave me a blood transfusion after my suicide attempt, I have been suffering from a strange condition, :"''They carried out an examination of my blood and they told me I have blood diseases and problems. :"''I request you (his lawyers) to inform my government about this and publish it in the media - and request my government to send a medical delegation to see and confirm that they do not transfer dangerous diseases to me through blood transfusions." Al Dossary had learned that his father finally died from terminal cancer, shortly before he drafted this letter. The camp authorities had informed him of the death, which they said they learned about over the internet. Al Dossary said that the camp authorities were not allowing him to receive mail from his family, and were withholding his personal belongings from him, and keeping him in solitary confinement. Al Dossary said that bad news, on top of the news of the blood condition, the withholding of all mail from his family, and the solitary confinement, had left him feeling his death was imminent. Al Dossary also reported that the camp authorities had promised him a rare phone call to his family, following his father's death. Al Dossary's June 12 letter was only declassified by the military on July 25, 2006, so it is unknown whether Al Dossary was able to take advantage of the camp authority's offer. A letter about suicide A letter Al Dossari wrote on April 18, 2007 was cleared by DoD censors on May 20, 2007. In the letter Al Dossari wrote: Colangelo-Bryan described Al Dossari as "coherent" but "utterly exhausted and desperate". Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey D. Gordon denied that al Dossary had been mistreated. He asserted that al Qaeda trained its operatives to claim abuse while incarcerated. According to the Associated Press Simpson said: Saudi repatriation and release On July 16, 2007 the Department of Defense reported that a further sixteen Saudis captives were repatriated from Guantanamo to Saudi custody. On July 17, 2007 the Gulf Daily News reported that Juma was one of the men repatriated to Saudi custody; that he had been sent to Saudi Arabia because he had joint Bahraini/Saudi citizenship. The Gulf Daily News reports: On Thursday August 23, 2007 the Gulf Daily News reported that Juma al Dossari had not only been released, but was going to receive official assistance from the Saudi government. The article quoted Bahraini Member of Parliament Mohammed Khalid, who said: An article in the December 21, 2007 issue of the Los Angeles Times profiled Al Dosari's rehabilitation. The article quoted al Dosari: The BBC World Service broadcast a half hour interview with Al Dossari on June 28, 2008. mirror Jumah al Dossari's Washington Post article On August 17, 2008 the Washington Post published an account from Jumah al Dossari of his experiences in US custody. He started his account with being moved when he came across and watched "United 93" without knowing what it was about. He described how watching the account of the passengers brought him to tears. He described some of the abuse he went through in US custody, including: * being beaten so badly he spent three days in intensive care; * having cigarettes put out on his body; * being chained to the floor during transportation. * being sexually assaulted Al Dossari described the beatings decreasing in frequency in his later years in Guantanamo, but that he was subjected to years of isolation, which he found even more difficult. He concluded: : Meeting with Gordon Brown On 2 November 2008 that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown toured the rehabilitation center for former Guantanamo captives, and, while there spoke with al Dossari, Ghanim al Harbi, and other former captives. The former captives received a flat, a job, and 20,000 pounds for a dowry, so they can get married. The Daily Mail report said that Al Dossari was now married. mirror mirror In 2009, at the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, the Associated Press interviewed al-Dossary, who stated that his only wish was that "...Obama was elected years ago. Guantanamo would not have happened".Toronto Star, World leaders welcome Gitmo closure, January 22, 2009 See also *Essa Al Murbati *Salah Abdul Rasool Al Blooshi *Adel Kamel Hajee *Salman Ebrahim Mohamed Ali Al Khalifa *Abdulla Majid Al Naimi References External links *(.pdf) documents from Al Dossary's Combatant Status Review Tribunal *'Help me' plea by Bay detainee, Gulf Daily News, September 5, 2005 *Free my son plea by dying Bahraini father, Gulf Daily News, September 17, 2005 *Lawyer Reveals Causes for Guantanamo Hunger Strike, Al Jazeera, September 22, 2005 *Bahrain 'probing strike reports', Gulf Daily News, October 7, 2005 *Family of Suicidal Guantanamo Detainee Plead for his Healthy Return Commondreams.org News Center, November 7, 2005 *Al Dossary 'still being grilled at Guantanamo', Gulf Daily News, November 8, 2005 *Days of Adverse Hardship in US Detention Camps - Testimony of Guantanamo Detainee Jumah Al-Dossari, Amnesty International, December 16, 2005 *Suicidal Guantanamo Inmate Moved Out of Isolation, Washington Post, December 17, 2005 *Early release unlikely for Guantanamo detainee, Gulf News, February 22, 2006 *A voice from Gitmo's darkness, Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, January 11, 2007 * * *http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1185 Category:Living people Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:Bahraini people